Greetings from a newcomer

I'm happy to join in such a bright community and would like to introduce myself very briefly.

I am from Turkey and as you could guess I was grown up in a muslim society. I thought I was a muslim but I always had ever-lasting questions in my mind. I was wondering why I find the idea of God strange and not reasonable. In a period of time I was actually trying to be a believer since every single friend of mine was so. I even went to Mosque many times with my friends and fast several years (not eating in Ramadan). To get answers to my questions I was talking to imams after pray. None of them liked my questions and eventually they told my friend not to take me to the Mosque anymore. Well, now I feel thankful to them.

I have always been intrigued in biology both practically and theoretically. When I encountered different stories of "creation of life",I got even bigger questions. Then one day I read Quran at the age of 16. It took just 20 pages to start drawing smiles next to the ridiculous passages (Well, after a while I had to stop it because it was taking more time than reading.)Having read the Quran, I put myself in a race to know all about religion history. Therefore, if you ask "what did make you an atheist ?" I dont sayt "Dawkins" but Quran. The best atheist-maker books are the sacred books,with a little requirement: "Ability to think". Anyway, then I got to know the grim history if Turks made muslim by sword in extremely barbaric ways. Knowing more about muslims and their goals made it so easy to understand religious/political issues all over the World.

When I picked "Selfish Gene" in the same year, as the next book to read about biology, something much more amazing and beautiful started to be clear. Life itself.

Right now I am not living in Turkey (its quite hard to stand ignorance) and working in Europe as a software engineer hoping that one day I switch to my dream job, evolutionary biologist.

I am SO glad you have "escaped" to a place where you are more free to THINK. I hope you achieve your goals! Its so beautiful to see people all over the world opening their eyes to the beauty of reality. Biology and the engine that runs it, evolution, are quite extraordinary. Welcome!